"Civil Defense" is a Cold War term you don’t hear very often these days.

For those who went to school in the years after World War II, nuclear attack drills were a way of life. You were told to pull down the window shades in the classroom (to prevent the blinding light of a nuclear blast or – somehow – prevent exploding window glass from entering the room?) and then duck down under your desk.

In some buildings, students went into the interior hallways and assumed crouching positions while covering their heads with their arms.

The identification bracelets that were sold in many schools at the time – listing name, address and religion – just added to the fear of nuclear war paranoia.

Water barrels, boxes of crackers and emergency medical supplies are still in place in the basement of 124 W. Market St., at one time a designated Civil Defense nuclear fallout shelter.(Photo: Submitted)

You could walk through downtown York and see many buildings marked with signs indicating the structure was a Civil Defense shelter in case of nuclear attack. Banks and buildings with sturdy basements were usually so marked.

York, at the time, was an industrial hub. As the namesake of the motivating World War II “York Plan” – “Do what you can with what you have” – it is possible the community could have been a nuclear target.

In the Civil Defense file at the York County History Center Library and Archives is a newspaper clipping from the Feb. 19, 1968 York Gazette & Daily, a predecessor publication of the York Daily Record. The article gives an inventory of Civil Defense fallout shelters compiled from the 1960 census.

It is an intriguing look at the York that was:

134 Licensed Public Fallout Shelters in the City of York.

The shelters could accommodate 69,089 people.

That figure was 14,000 more than the number of people living in the city at that time.

There was enough food in the shelter (probably the well-known shelter crackers) for 18,427 people.

Water was stockpiled in barrels for 25,000 people.

The article did not explain the major difference between the number of people who could fit in a shelter and the amount of food and water for them.

Another 392 buildings in York had been identified as potential fallout shelters (but not designated as such) for an additional 131,720 people.

So where have all the CD fallout shelters gone?

Mike Shanabrook, a York City office of emergency planning specialist, said, “I know some facilities still have Civil Defense supplies. I do not know of any formal program to clean out” those supplies.

A time capsule

One such place is the basement of the original Chas. A. Schaefer Flower Shop. There is a weathered Civil Defense Shelter sign on the older building at 124 W. Market St. and another sign above the interior basement entrance to the shelter.

Chris Sallade, a fourth-generation member of the business, provided a tour of the sturdy basement shelter and its supplies – still in place after six decades. There are 17½-gallon-barrels of water, boxes of crackers, and a box of emergency medical supplies still in place.

In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Chris recalls the business received a letter saying the supplies would be picked up. “Then nothing happened,” he says. So the supplies have stayed in place.

Mike Shanabrook reports other caches of supplies turning up when some old buildings are renovated. “During a school renovation, they were cleaning out the supplies and they gave me a Geiger counter,” he said. In another instance, “very old and moldy, rotted cots and blankets (were found), nothing worth saving.”

Mike adds, “I know of no formal program to clean out the old equipment.”

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Once upon a time, there was a remote Pennsylvania community that rose to the challenge in World War II. In fact, it was the town that roared. Thousands of its people served in the military, and those remaining behind supported the war effort in their work on the factory floor and by rationing in the home. York County produced the York Plan, a collaborative defense initiative that went national. These photos help tell York County's World War II story on the war front and home front. - Jim McClure York County History Center

This man was an unsung home front hero. Col. William Beckner served as York County's wartime Civil - or Civilian - Defense director. He knew the county - with its massive red brick factories - could be a target of enemy bombs. So he ordered guards on water supplies and bridges and generally rang the bell on local defense efforts. York Daily Record file

Everyone became involved in the war effort. Those anticipated enemy bomb runs? Well, elevated sites throughout the county were populated by sky watchers keep an eye on them. This one, at Edgar Fahs Smith Junior High School, was manned by students. No enemy planes were spotted during the war. York Daily Record file

Yes, everyone was involved with a war on. And in many different ways. Young women worked as hostesses at the USO, a clubhouse for military men at the old York County Academy on Beaver Street. The hostesses provided company and dance partners, but not dates - at least they weren't supposed to. Here is a gathering of hostesses and servicemen at the USO's Pennsylvania Dutch Canteen at the old academy's gymnasium. York Daily Record file

York County and America was plastered with propaganda posters, as they were called. They were designed to provide advice - and raise morale. But some women disagreed with the stereotyping message here. No morale boost there. York Daily Record file

Still on the home front: S. Forry Laucks, owner of York Safe and Lock was the community leader in the early stages of the York Plan, a collaboration among factories in York County. York Daily Record file

Some workers around York felt left out because their factories did not make weapons and ordnance. York Corporation exec told employees they would help win the war by providing cooling, so large amounts of food could be transported across two oceans. The business, now Johnson Controls, would do what it did best - make refrigeration equipment. York Daily Record file

This and other images from the World War II era sought to favorably compare tools ranging from those used to make everyday stuff a soldier might need to weapons. ammunition and other ordnance. York County History Center

The York Plan could have been branded the York County Plan. The plan included factories beyond the city, including in Red Lion. The Red Lion Cabinet Company produced all kinds of military products, from bomb fuses, to planking for pontoon bridges. Stephen H. Smith, submitted

This West Market Street mural shows Alexander D. Goode, the military chaplain who went down with his transport ship in World War II. He heroically gave up his life jacket so that others might live, one of four chaplains - The Four Chaplains -to die on the Dorchester. York Daily Record file

Gen. Jacob L. Devers received his fourth star on March 30, 1945, as his Sixth Army Group crossed the Rhine in its campaign through the south of Germany. He was York County's highest ranking military officer. York County History Center

York native Jacob L. Devers, third from left, surveys Hitler's home in Berchtesgaden, Germany. Devers' men helped capture this hideaway, 'Eagle's Nest. Devers is joined by, from left, Sgt. John Turnipseed, from Devers staff; Gen. Wade H. Haislip, commanding general of the 6th Corps, and Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor, 101 Airborne Division. York County History Center

Charles E. Williams, one of six York brothers to serve in World War II, was killed in Italy shortly before V.E. Day ended fighting in Europe. Many York County families sent multiple sons off to battle. York Daily Record file

Lt. Thomas Frutiger of Red Lion was another fighting man who never came back. He was detained in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in the Phillipines. He was killed by friendly fire late in 1944 aboard a POW transport on its way to Japan. York Daily Record file

York entrepreneur John McElligott, left, the county's foremost proponent of York Plan 2.0, is seen with former AOL chief Steve Case in York. Borrowing from the York Plan, McElligott has called for Central Pennsylvania to act as a region to promote technology startups and attract established tech firms. York Daily Record file

After the war ended in Europe in May 1945, Gen. Jacob Loucks Devers came home to a hero's welcome. He met W. S. Shipley, the handshake connecting heroes on the war front and home fronts. York County History Center

The war was over, but York County's many and varied contributions are remembered today. Here is just one. Flo Snyder wrote poetry appearing in York Corporation's newsletter to employees in uniform around the world. Her words were a prayer of hope at a dark time of the war. Thousands of York countians, indeed, came home. And became the Greatest Generation. York Daily Record file